Many people living in one day at a time recovery understand that we can live our lives as a bowl full of complicated simplicity. To keep it simple we need not use just one day at a time. Many of us choose to meet with other recovering people in the rooms of recovery and give and take is what happens when we meet. Often we mistakenly think we need the ideal job, the ideal home, the ideal relationship and a life full of ideal circumstances to be able to live happily in recovery but in doing so we make our lives really complicated by placing such conditions on being able to live happily one day at a time. The rooms of recovery teach us to keep life and recovery simple. Don’t use, reach out, give back, and help others. We will experience reality, grace, and freedom. Peace.
Many of us living in one day at a time recovery are people who have lived the lives of wayward monks. If we are new to recovery we are soon to realize that what we mean in saying we had lived our lives as wayward monks we mean we have lived, and still live our lives, as spiritual misfits. It is our experiences, and the stories we tell, or the musings we share, that make us so. What we have learned is – God takes care of babes and fools and in our innocence and our naivety we actually help people. When we do so we are just trying to find our way. Eventually we find grace in abundance which we learn to give and receive. Our waywardness is a gift which isn’t always easy. It’s the discovery of reality and reality can be hard. We need to understand this. Peace.
Those of us who have been living in recovery for a fair amount of time know what it is like to live a life of being jagged around the corners. This is the reality of living with the remnants of past fears and failures, and present character defects and short comings. This makes us think – “If only we could be perfect” or – “If only we could have been perfect.” We must remember that we are a “we”. For some of us our jaggedness is that we are misfits who had lived portions of our lives impaired, frightened, and out of control. Even though we live a life of recovery the jaggedness still lives on and will continue to live on. This is why we must accept the grace of a daily reprieve and it is that daily reprieve that keeps us living in abstinence and recovery. It’s a gift. Peace.
Those of us living in one day at a time recovery know that there are many things we have to do in our lives to navigate the realities of wellness and freedom which we find one day at a time. Two of such things we need are for our journey to be built upon both reaching out for help when we need to and trying to help others in order that they too might find their own wellness and freedom one day at a time. Both undertakings are good and right. Such endeavors are not really a pursuit of righteousness. We are simply doing what recovering people do which is seeking the realities of wellness and freedom. Reaching out for help from others and becoming a person who can help others is the reality of being capable of receiving and giving grace. This is the foundation of wellness and freedom found in living one day at a time. This is a huge step. Many of us believe that such journeys makes God, the spirit, or the universe smile. Us too. Peace.
Many people who have been living in one day at a time recovery discover the need for humility in order that we can participate in integrating new ideas into the reality of our often closed-minded views on what recovery is and what it should be. We know that no new idea can become a part of a rigid, egocentric, proud, and inflexible mind that refuses to believe that new ideas are not a personal attack on ones being. A dash of humility will make us aware of such judgement and we will learn to harvest the reality of growth often found in integrating new ideas which enable us to understand the reality that we all belong. Fools like us understand this concept. We open our minds. It’s all grace. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery understand the the upside-down world of active addiction. This occurs when we treat family like strangers and we treat strangers like family. What we don’t understand is that active addiction distorts our moral compass and family responsibilities seem to just go out the window making us participants in the world of irresponsibility while existing only for self. Eventually, we all suffer because of this and most of us will either bottom out and cause harm not only to ourselves but also to those we love. The pain of this often forces us to reach out for help. Because of this pain we have hope and we find one day at a time recovery. Reach out and find the gift of desperation. We all need help. Peace.
People living in one day one day at a time recovery understand the reality of people being people when people are healthy. The first reality we understand is when people are healthy they are more content. We know this from the personal experience of we being people who are healthy people. When we are healthy we are more attuned to what is going on in our world and also in the worlds of those around us. When healthy we are better at navigating the ever fluctuating waves of life. We could say that we are more in touch with reality. Our reality is life is life and as we go with the flow we experience the joy that life offers us. In all reality we also roll with the punches when being hit with life’s adversity. We are also better at dealing with the doldrums of being a human being who is a human being living. When healthy, which can be much of the time, we are more productive, flexible, and adaptive to the realities of human reality and its needs. We can be generous people but we are generous people who live with realistic and reasonable boundaries. Boundaries are part of being healthy. What we realize is our kindness is in large supplies when we are well. This is the reality of people being people when we are healthy. It’s a gift. Peace.
Those of us who have chosen to live life one day at a time should honestly, and humbly, expect that we will live a life of one day at a time recovery if we maintain the spirit of abstinence in all of its humility, and all of its hope. This reality is only obtainable should we experience the reality of grace. People who are members of the rooms of recovery continually model this reality for us. We get to see grace in action as these people continually bestow it upon us and each other. This is the reality of self-help which is we help ourselves by helping each other. We need to persevere one day at a time. It’s all about grace. It’s our hope. Peace.
Many of us living in one day at a time recovery understand when we are practicing being resilient in today we are creating hope for tomorrow. When we are living as resilient people there is a determination growing within us that brings a familiar strength that pushes us to keep going, and keep growing, in order that we can face adversity, while being capable of remaining abstinent one day at a time, today. This is the reality of hope which we lived yesterday, live today, and will live tomorrow. Our experience teaches us that life is a doable and inviting place to be when we practice becoming resilient while living in today. Resilience and hope happen before we even know it. They are gifts. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery stumble into periodic times of living with poetic melancholy (we are just in a rut). We need to understand it is not always a spiritual ineptness that causes this, but when it is, we need to realize the importance of living one day at a time putting one foot in front of the other. For some of us the remedy is simply – “Maybe we just have to be” and as we are we will see the scales of a healthy life will eventually measure out much more contentment and peace than we could ever have dreamed of. Tomorrow will come and we will be. One day at a time recovery proves this to us. Life is doable and life will once again be good. Reach out. Peace.